Long Lost Prince
by blackhole freedom
Summary: Hiccup gets caught by Stoick and finds out the truth about his life. Everything from his heritage to his name was a lie. He and Toothless go to find his real family. Rating is for violence.


Here's another story that I think is going to turn out pretty interesting. Please read and review. Reviewing is what keeps me wrighting and I need to get feedback to know what my readers like and don't like. Also, I do not own Brave, How to Train Your Dragon, as far as I know any of the characters appearing in this fic or the cover picture. It is by bowtiewizard of Deviantart. I am not making a profit on any of this.

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Hiccup and Toothless sat on the edge of a cliff in the Scottish Highlands, watching the sun rise. So far from anything they were familiar with, the events of the past week were beginning to hit them both hard. As hiccup changed the bandages on what was left of his left leg, he thought about how he had lost it to the man he thought was his father and what had happened after.

_Hiccup all but ran into the clearing that Toothless lived in. He had been chosen to fight the dragon the next day and knew he could never go through with it. That left only one choice. "We're leaving. You and me are going on a little vacation... forever," he said as he walked towards his friend with a large basket of supplies. He was just strapping it to Toothless's back when he heard a sound behind him. He turned quickly expecting to see Astrid, who had been following him for several weeks, but it wasn't her. No, this was a thousand times worse. Standing near the entrance to the clearing was none other than Stoick the Vast, Chief of the viking tribe that lived on Birk. For a moment they were both silent._

_"Dad, I can explain," but he was cut off._

_"Don't you dare call me that. You sided with THEM? You went against the people who fed you? Clothed you? Kept you alive all these years!?" He was quiet for a second, then said something that the boy would never forget. "I suppose I should have expected it from a Scot."_

_"What? W-what do you mean?"_

_"You can't tell me you never noticed," Stoick said with venom in his voice. "How different you are from us. How you never quite fit in. No you aren't a viking. You're defiiatly not my son. You're nothing but a little hostage. That's all you've ever been."_

_Hiccup was horrified, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're not making any sense," he yelled even though it was crystal clear, "If I'm not your son, then whose son am I?"_

_"_You _are the_ _King and Queen of Scotland's brat. You were taken as a baby to send them a message, never to mess with the Vikings. I should have killed you then, _Prince Higgins_, but I kept you alive in case we ever needed a barganing chip. A mistake I can easily fix right now," Stoick yelled and then ran at him with his sword drawn. _

_Toothless saw what Stoick was about to do and grabbed the back of his friends shirt in he mouth, pulling him away quickly enough to keep Stoick from cutting off his head but Toothless couldn't save the boy from the injury he received that would change his life. As Hiccup was pulled off of his feet, he felt relief at first, but then an unimaginable pain overtook him, cause him to scream out a sound that spoke of anguish. The pain started from just below his left knee and traveled up. Luckily he passed out soon after as Toothless ran/glided through the forest with Hiccup still hanging from his mouth._

_When Hiccup woke up he was in a cave. It took him several minutes to remember what had happened, and then nearly an hour to accept it. He wasn't the chiefs son. He wasn't even a Viking. According to Stoick, even his name was a lie. He had no idea what to do. He couldn't go back home. They would probably kill him on site. Sighing, he decided to figure out where he was and tried to stand up, only to fall back down and get a shooting pain come from his leg. That caused him to remember Stoicks attack. He looked down to assess the damage and was shocked to see that the bottom part of his leg, starting just below his knee, was gone. The end was also burned and almost looked black. He realised that Toothless must have done that, in order to save him. He had probably been bleeding to death and since Toothless couldn't exactly bandage his leg, he did the only thing he could and cauterised it. Looking around he saw the basket he had brought a few feet away and pulled himself over to it. He dug around inside it until he found a small brown bag and pulled it out. In the bag was medicine and bandages that he proceeded to put on his injury, despite the sharp pain. He knew that without them, his leg could easily get infected and that would cause an entirely new set of problems. When it was wrapped tightly, he decided to go outside and figure out where he was. The entrance to the cave was only about twenty feet away, so it wasn't to hard to crawl to it. When he got here, he had to stop though. Not because he was exhausted, but because the ground didn't go any further. _

_He poked his head over the edge and saw that his cave was fifty feet up in the side of a cliff. Down below was a beech and, to his relief, Toothless sticking his head underwater trying to catch fish, but by the looks of it not having any luck. He chuckled a little at the dragons efforts, then hollered out "Toothless!"_

_Toothless head shot up out of the water and he turned towards the familiar voice. Seeing his rider was awake, he ran to the base of the cliff and began to climb. For a human it would have been treacherous, but it took him less than a minute to reach the cave entrance where he immediately tackled Hiccup and began to look him over. He stopped when he reached the severed leg and looked up with sad eyes. Hiccup had a sad look of his own, though he was trying to hide it with a half-smile. "Don't worry buddy. I'm gonna be fine. And I have you to thank for that. You saved my life." Hiccup put his hand on Toothless's forehead in a comforting gesture. "And don't worry about wandering around forever either. I think I have a plan about what to do." Toothless angled his head a little in question. "Well, we can't go back to Birk, that's for sure." Toothless gave him a 'well, duh' look. "Stop it, I'm getting to my point. We can't go back to Birk, but maybe we can go to Scotland. Stoick said that my parent were the king and queen there. We can go and find them and they might help us. What do you think?" Toothless perked up and shook this head up and down in agreement. "Great! Alright, we need to do a few things first. I need you to go out and find me a few branches about as tall as I am. Can you do that for me?" Toothless again shook his head up and down and then left. He came back in an hour with the requested material. Hiccup, or rather Higgins, as he decided he should try using his original name, pulled out some rope and small knife and got to work. He tried to make a fake leg, but it still hurt to much to wear it, so he settled for a makeshift set of crutches instead. When that was done, Higgins fitted the foothold of Toothless's tailfin with a lever so he could operate it with his hand. After that they were, more or less back in flying condition and took to the air, stopping only eat and sleep._

That had been five days ago, and Toothless and Higgins could now see Castle DunBroch in the distance. It had been an exhausting journey but it wasn't over yet. He still had to face the parents he had never met, who had lost their son seventeen years ago and probably didn't want painful memories dragged to the surface which this was guaranteed to do, and convince them that he was who he said he was. If he was going to turn back, now was his last chance. But he couldn't do that. There was nothing to turn back to. If he didn't go through with this, he and Toothless would be alone for the rest of their lives, never really belonging anywhere. With that in mind, Higgins climbed into Toothless's saddle and they flew towards what they hoped would be their new life. As they got closer they saw that the castle was situated on a cliff at the edge of a huge lake, with forrest around it on the other sides. There was a bridge that crossed a deep valley leading to the entrance of the castle compund. That was where they decided to land. Higgins got off out of the saddle and used his crutches to walk in front of Toothless, as guards rushed towards them. He stood his ground, but tried his best not to seem threatening. This made both easier and harder by his missing leg and the large black dragon, standing behind him respectively. The guards stopped ten feet in front of him, with weapons drawn, and stared at him. Before they could ask, he said, "I am here to seek an audience with the King and Queen of Scotland." They looked at him carefully for a few moments, bofore the one who seemed to be in charge said, "You can come and speak to them, but your beast stays here," gesturing to Toothless. Toothless growled slightly, but Higgins turned around and placing a comforting hand on his snout, muttering that he wouldn't be gone long. He then followed the guards inside.

When he got to the throne room, he saw them, sitting on their thrones looking every bit the rulers of a powerful country. The king reminded him of Stoik, with his build and slightly wild red hair, but had a kind, almost playful look in his eyes that put Higgins at ease, even if he wasn't trying to. The Queen was tall for a woman, but not nearly as tall as her husband. She had soft, but intelligent features and very long brown hair with a grey streak in the front. She was looking at him with a look of curiosity, like she recognised him but didn't know where from. One of the guards stepped forward, bowed and said, "King Fergus, Queen Elinor, this young man just arived at the main entrance. He rode on some sort of flying beast, and claimed to want an audience with you. He didn't say why."

Fergus looked at the boy who was standing in front of him and Elinor. He was of adverage height, had the same shade of brown hair as his wife and green eyes. He was also skinny, almost unhealthily so and wearing brown pants, and green wool shirt with a brown leather belt over it, and a single brown boot. The reason for this was that there was nowhere for a second one to go. He was missing the lower part of his left leg and was using a set of crutches to help him stand. Judging by the bandages over the stump, he had lost it recently and the injury was still healing. He wondered why the boy was here and to resting. Similar thoughts were going through Elinors mind, but she was also trying to understand the feeling that she had seen this young man before. It was odd indeed. "Well young man," she said, "what is you name, and why did you come here?"

"My name is Higgins," the name sparked painful memories in both royals, but they kept calm, "and I came here because... because I have reason to believe that you are my parents." The last part was rushed, but they caught it. He was tense and looking at the ground, now, waiting for their reaction.

As Elinor got over her shock, she asked, "And why would you think that? Explain yourself." He looked up at them with pleading eyes and then launched into his story about how he was raised believing he was the son of Cheif Stoick of Birk, but was rairly treated with much respect. He told them how the Vikings were constantly fighting against dragons and how he had against the odds, and more importantly against the ways of his 'people', had befriended one of them. He had used what he learned about them from Toothless, the dragon he befriended, to excell in dragon training, and was eventually picked out of the other trainies to fight in an arena against one of them. Of course he couldn't do it, so had planned to run away, but Stoick had found him just as he was prepairing to leave with the dragon named Toothless. In his rage, he had told Higgins the truth about his existence and then tried to kill him. Luckily Stoick failed, thanks to Toothless, but had taken the boys leg as a consolation prize. The two friends fled and, having nowhere else they could possibly go, came to Scotland in hopes of finding Higgins real family.

By the end of the tale, Fergus was in total shock with his mouth hanging open in disbelief, while both Elinor and Higgins both had tears steadily moving down their faces. Elinor stood slowly and stared into the Higgins eyes. Slowly she gathered her thoughts and said, "Your story seems truthful and you are the correct age and hair and eye color, but there is only one way I can think of to know for sure," she walked towards him. "Our son had a... a distinct birthmark. Will please remove your shirt?" Higgins seemed uncomfortable with it, there were lots of gaurds and servants and other people in the room, but complied with the queens request. He took his belt first and then pealed his woolen garmet over his head and faced her, unhappy with being shirtless in front of so many people. She placed her hands on his shoulders and gently turned him around so that she was looking at his back. On the back of his right shoulder was a round red mark that looked like a dragon chasing it's tail. She traced her fingers around it, just to prove to herself that it was real, that she wasn't dreaming. Then she turned him back around, a little less gently and pulled him into a tight hug. He dropped his crutches in shock, and after a minute of just standing there, leaning agianst the queen for support, hugged her back. Elinor lifted her head and looked at her husband, never letting Higgins go. "Fergus, it's him. It really is our son. Higgins is alive." With that, the king got up and walked over to hug his wife and eldest son. When they all pulled apart and Higgins had his shirt back on and crutches, his mother lead him to the part of the castle that held the royal familys rooms. As they were making their way out of the Throne Room, he heard his real father shout to the other people there, "Send out word! The long lost prince of Scotland has returned! My wife and I's eldest son, Higgins of Clan DunBroch, has come home!" That was when Higgins, realised that there had been more than two thrones in the throne room. He smiled at the thought of having siblings. Then he said "Wait! Toothless is still outside." "Don't worry, I'll have someone see to him. Right now you need to rest and I want you to meet your sister and brothers.

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Okay, here's a little challenge for you. Anyone who can correctly guess why I picked Hiccups new name, gets a cookie! Okay, not really but the first few people to get it right will get a shout-out in the next chapter, that says they won the contest! Don't forget to review, thanks!


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